Aliens (1986)

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton and a SHITLOAD of Badass Motherfucker Aliens

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: This time it's war

Plot: It's 57 years later and the planet from ALIEN (1979) has been colonized. Only Ripley knows the danger and tags along with Space Marines on a mission to save the survivors.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Would I watch it again? Yeah

It seems with every viewing this picture diminishes a tad. 20 years ago I probably would've given it a 9 but now, after a gazillion movies later, it's losing its favor with me. It's still a great ride but the little things that bug me, ahahahaha, about it get more distasteful with every bite.


The biggest elephant in the room is Carrie Henn, the little girl who plays Newt. She's not terrible, per se, but a better director would've gotten either a better actress or a better performance. I'm not saying Cameron is a bad director, he's just not an "actor's" director. He's great with everything else though. After seeing AVATAR and previously re-vising T2, it's apparent that Cameron's least concern is the performances. He's not nearly as bad as George Luca$ in that camp, thankfully.


Weaver's Ripley gets to stretch her character, adding more layers to her badass self. What's left are a group of stereotypes that couldn't be more fun to watch.


So how do you follow-up the instant classic that was ALIEN (1979)? More aliens. Cameron excels in action. Subtle, he isn't. Once you get past the very familiar open sequence, ala the opening of the original but this time it's James Horner's score, and the 25-minute setup, it's balls-to-the-wall action and suspense.


Another contention I have, and I'm sure I'm in the minority on this, is the one-on-one fight at the end between the alien and Ripley in the robot box mover. Oh, please. It's ridiculous. It's like a live action Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.


ALIENS is mostly a really good movie, mostly, with some fun characters and tense action. For my money, ALIEN is the work of art and ALIENS is the popcorn movie. I'm not sure what you'd call the rest of the series.